Eton Grundig Satellit 750 Review

Eton Grundig Satellit 750 Review: When it comes to choosing a shortwave radio, there are a ton of options. From cheap portables to full-featured desktop radios, there is a huge array of radios on the market. Depending on your needs and budget, you may want to go with a small portable, an advanced desktop set, or something in the middle.

Today, we are reviewing that “something in the middle” radio, the Eton Grundig Satellit 750. This radio is full of useful features, but it’s still small enough to be considered portable. It’s a great middle ground for those looking for more advanced features, reception, and performance, but not willing to sacrifice the convenience of portability.

At an MSRP of $400, the Satellit is in the middle ground price-wise, as well. Although the suggested retail price is $400, this model is often available for around $300 from online vendors.

So, without further ado, let’s dive right in and explore one of the most popular mid-range shortwave radios on the market, the Eton Grundig Satellit 750.

View Eton Grundig Satellit 750 here

Features:

Receives AM, FM, aircraft, longwave (117-137 MHz) and shortwave (1711-30000 KHz) bands

Because it receives just about every band frequency out there, the 750 gives you a huge range of options when it comes to radio listening. Tune into popular AM talkshows, FM music stations, aeronautical bands, amateur radio broadcasts, and shortwave broadcasts from all over the world, using the same compact device.

Receives Single Side Band (SSB)

SSB is the band of choice for amateur radio operators (ham operators) because it’s more efficient and uses less bandwidth. If you’re looking to receive amateur radio broadcasts, the Eton 750 is a good choice because it receives SSB.

100 programmable memories for each band

The Satellit 750 allows you to program station memory for up to 100 frequencies on each band. This is useful for saving frequencies you’ve enjoyed for future use.

Auto/manual/direct frequency key-in

There are many ways to find the frequency you’re looking for, with auto scanning, manual entry and direct frequency key-in.

360 degree rotating antenna

With an advanced 360-degree rotating antenna, you’ll be able to adjust the angle and positioning of your antenna to increase the reception quality of hard-to-reach frequencies.

External antenna port

More advanced listeners will appreciate the fact that the Satellit 750 includes an external antenna port, which allows you to use more advanced antennas to pick up a wider range of frequencies.

o Auto tuning storage (ATS) function for FM/AM/SW

o Digital display with 2 alarm clocks

o Great sound quality

o Auxiliary input to plug in MP3 players/smartphones

o Adjust bass and treble tuning

o Battery powered, or AC/DC plugin compatible

Performance:

The Satellit 750 offers impressive features, but how does it perform? Here’s our experience, and some feedback we’ve received from the community.

The sensitivity, selectivity, and overall performance of this model are very good. Tuning was easy, even to distant SSB bands, and once tuned, the reception was rock-solid - very little drift occurred once tuned.

The 750 offers enough features to keep advanced users happy, but it’s easy enough to use that novices can still enjoy this radio.

Reception

Overall, we found the reception on this model to be excellent. The built-in antenna was sufficient to pick up even very weak signals, on all the bands we tried. The ability to rotate the antenna is a good feature, allowing you to make slight adjustments in order to improve reception.

And, of course, the included jacks allow you to plug in an external antenna. This will obviously improve reception, and allow you more flexibility. Personally, I tend to use an external antenna when I’m at home, simply because I have one and it works great. However, I’ve found the built-in antenna on the 750 to be more than sufficient, so an external antenna is not necessary for the average user.

Sound quality:

Eton is known for great sound quality, and they lived up to their reputation with this model. For the size of the unit, the sound quality is excellent, providing clear and crisp sound. The adjustable treble and bass options are nice for customizing the sound to your preferences. However, we found that the bass control tended to adjust the overall volume as well as the bass level, which was a bit odd to say the least.

Here's a video review of Eton Grundig Satellit 750.

The good sound quality on this unit is largely due to its superior build quality. If you open up the back of the unit, you’ll find an organized and well-designed build. The speaker and amp share a large compartment, allowing plenty of room for reverb (which improves sound quality). Too often we see speakers crammed into all-too-small compartments in portable radios, so it was nice to see that Eton designed this unit with reverb and sound quality in mind.

Consumer reviews:

What is the community saying about the Eton Grundig Satellit 750?

Overall, the reviews are positive. On Amazon (as of this post release), this unit has received an average 4.1/5 stars in more than 300 reviews. On RadioShacks website, 26 users gave this unit a 3.9/5 star ranking, on average. Throughout the web, reviews are generally in the 4/5 star range, on average.

In general, the comments left in consumer reviews reflect our review of this unit, and are generally positive. The most common negative comments were that the manual did not contain adequate information, and that certain units had issues that required repair.

We observed a higher-than-usual occurance of users reporting technical issues with their Satellit 750’s. Many of these issues required technical support or repair. It seems that certain units are simply defective, so quality control measures appear to be lacking. Luckily, Eton is known for good quality customer service. That being said, it can still be a hassle to return a unit or get a repair.

It does seem that most issues reported by reviewers were on older units of this model, so it’s possible that many of the issues have been addressed by Eton and that newer units will be less likely to have problems.

In order to avoid any potential issues, we recommend you buy this radio from a reputable vendor. That way, if you do experience any issues with it, it won’t be a problem to return it or get it covered by Eton’s warranty.

Conclusion:

Overall, the Eton Grundig Satellit 750 is a quality radio. It offers impressive sound quality, great reception, and enough features to keep advanced listeners happy. It’s fairly user-friendly, although we found that the included manual did not contain enough information to inform novice users. Some reviewers mentioned technical issues with their units, some of which required repair or technical support.

In the end, we recommend the Satellit 750 as a great mid-level radio. Sure, there are much better devices out there, but at the ~$300 price range, the 750 is hard to beat. The Satellit 750 is a good middle ground, due to its portable nature, wide range, and good sound quality.